Iris Johansen - Quicksand

"Are you going to be able to persuade him to stay?"

"I think I'll have to call Venable and see what he can do. Cassidy's right, technically the FBI isn't needed here."

"Then why don't you let him go back to St. Louis? We'd have much more fun without them getting in our way." He paused. "You want them here because Quinn does not?"

"Not entirely. The picture is much bigger. Is everything well there?"

"No sign of any trouble. Evidently Quinn also thought Eve should have protection. I was stopped in the hall by a deputy because I was a suspicious character."

"Obviously a man of perception."

"There's no need for me to be here. Why don't I meet you at-"

"No."

"Oh, very well. Enjoy yourself in the woods. I suppose I'll have to go have a fine dinner and be entertained by Jane MacGuire. You didn't tell me what a beautiful woman she is."

"I haven't met her yet."

"She's like Eve. Guarded. But you don't see it until you study her for a while. And she's very protective of Eve. She doesn't make a big deal of it, but it's always there."

"Eve adopted her when she was ten. It was a number of years after she lost her daughter, Bonnie. Jane was a street kid and probably as tough as you are, Miguel."

"I knew we were meant for each other. But she doesn't see it. She has other fish to fry." He heard the service elevator open. "Our dinner has arrived. I'll think of you in that damp hellhole of a bog while I drink fine wine and eat like a king. Good night, Colonel."

"I DON'T WANT TO TALK TOyou, Montalvo," Venable said curtly. "I've just spent fifteen minutes talking to the director of the FBI, who wants to know what the hell his agents are doing in those woods when evidently half the population of Illinois is already stumbling around there. You said they were needed."

Evidently Cassidy hadn't wasted any time, Montalvo thought. "What's it going to take to get them to stay?"

"A valid reason. Proof that the local police can't do the job. Since it's a simple search and pursuit, you're going to get an argument."

"What about bringing up the possibility of the child killing? The investigation of Bobby Joe Windlaw's disappearance might require sophisticated techniques and expertise."

"When even the sheriff's department won't commit to whether they're certain the boy wasn't accidentally drowned? Sorry, I'd like to help Eve Duncan, but there's no-"

"I'll give you the location of Nortano's weapons cache near Bogotá. You've been looking for it for the last four years."

There was silence at the other end of the connection. "You son of a bitch."

"That little boy was reported missing after Kistle showed up in Bloomburg."

"I know. I know. Bobby Joe Windlaw," Venable said. "No body. Cassidy says that everyone thought he drowned in the river. His shirt and shoes were found on the riverbank."

"Kistle shows up. The little boy disappears. I don't believe in coincidences."

"No body," Venable repeated. "Find the boy's body and then come back to me."

"No, you do it and come back to me. I'm not the one who wants Nortano's weapons."

Venable muttered a curse. "I thought you'd walked away from that life."

"I have, but that doesn't mean I don't know the value of an ace in the hole. Stall Cassidy until you can find a way to locate Bobby Joe's body."

"Cassidy won't help until he's ordered to do it. He'll call it a wild-goose chase."

"Then that leaves it up to you, doesn't it?"

"I'm CIA, dammit. We're talking about jurisdiction. You know we're supposed to operate only outside the country."

"And the CIA never does anything but exactly what it's supposed to do, never steps on anyone's toes? I'm not asking you to join in the hunt for Kistle. But the boy's body has to be found and it has to be done quickly. If the FBI is called into the boy's case, then they'll have to go after Kistle as a possible suspect."

"And give you the FBI presence you want in Clayborne Forest. I'll see what I can do." Venable hung up.

Montalvo put away his phone and got out of the car and moved toward the forest. He didn't doubt Venable would do everything he could. He was smart and experienced and the bribe Montalvo had dangled in front of him would be tempting enough to be nearly irresistible.

In the meantime, he'd do a little scouting of his own and hope those nervous deputies didn't take potshots at him. He could feel his pulse begin to quicken as his gaze fastened on the trees. Kistle was there. He wasn't trying to run. He was waiting. The prey was armed and dangerous and wanted to kill the hunter. It was the game Montalvo liked most. He couldn't blame Miguel for being disappointed that he'd made him stay at the hotel. Miguel understood the game.

And so did Joe Quinn, he thought suddenly.

Quinn had felt the same heady excitement Montalvo was feeling. He had seen it in his expression this afternoon. They were alike in that, if nothing else.

Except for their feelings for Eve. Yet even in that emotion they could not be more different. Quinn was the keeper of the castle, familiar with every battlement, and had the advantage of a passionate desire to keep what was his. Montalvo was the enemy at the gates who had nothing to lose and everything to win.

And Kistle might be the battering ram that would be the deciding weapon.

He melted into the shrubbery and began moving toward the distant trees.

Come on, Kistle. Let's get this battle started.

VENABLE LEANED BACK IN HISchair after he'd hung up his phone. Dammit, Montalvo was twisting his arm and he wanted to tell him to go take a hike. If there was one thing he hated, it was getting into jurisdictional squabbles with other law enforcement agencies. It made him look ruthless and antagonized the organization he was riding roughshod over. He didn't want to make an enemy of the boys at Quantico. In his world you never knew when you were going to need a favor. Montalvo shouldn't have put him in this position.

Nortano's weapons cache.

God, he wanted to clean that bastard out. Nortano had been a thorn in the Colombian government's side for years and Venable's agents would have a safer path if he could be removed.

And if Montalvo said he'd give him the information, he would do it. He'd never reneged on a bargain in the years he'd known him.

Okay, the decision was made. He had to have Nortano's cache. How to go about getting it without obviously compromising the Company's jurisdiction?

Bobby Joe Windlaw. Find his body. Montalvo was right: if the kid had been murdered, then he had an excuse to draw the FBI back into the picture. If Bobby Joe had drowned, Montalvo would still have to agree that Venable had completed his part of the bargain.

All right, how to find Bobby Joe. Think. Make a plan. Keep it from looking like interference. He'd done this kind of sleight of hand before. It was just more difficult on U.S. soil. He'd call in any favors he could draw on and beg, borrow, and steal if he had to. Now who could do the job in the way he wanted it done?

He suddenly stiffened in shock in his chair as the answer came to him. "Holy shit."

He reached for his phone.

"DO YOU MIND IF I USE YOURbathroom?" Joe asked Eve after the door had closed behind them. "I need to clean up. You don't want me touching anything in this room. I've been out in the woods all day."

"Go ahead." Eve watched him as he moved across the bedroom. "But I thought it might be your bathroom too. You're not staying with me?"

"I've got a room on the next floor." Joe turned on the water faucet. "It will be more convenient."

Eve stood in the bathroom doorway watching him as he took off his shirt and began to scrub. "Convenient for what?"

"I'll be in and out at all hours of the day and night. I don't want to disturb you."